Storage Bin Bonanza: Berkeley’s Loss is Huntington’s Gain

An amusing and embarrassing story in today’s NY Times relates how UC Berkeley accidentally sold a carved redwood panel by WPA artist Sargent Johnson for $150 (+tax) from it’s surplus furniture depot. There’s a happy ending, though- through the sharp eyes and acquisitive instincts of a lucky antique dealer, the piece was re-sold for an undisclosed sum between $200,000 and $1 million to the the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, where it will be on public display, a prominent part of the museum’s American art collection.